Chiara Garau

From Territory to Smartphone: Smart Fruition of Cultural Heritage for Dynamic Tourism Development

Augmented reality is a new technology that merges the virtual and the real worlds and offers important support in all planning processes. Using mobile devices, planning information can be implemented with smart and participative solutions for a dynamic fruition of cultural heritage [Brondi, R., Carrozzino, M., Tecchia, F., & Bergamasco, M. (2012) Mobile augmented reality for cultural dissemination, in: P. Nesi & R. Santucci (Eds), ECLAP 2012 Conference on Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media and Entertainment, pp. 113–118 (Firenze: Firenze University Press); Hatzelhoffer, L., et al. (2012) Smart City in Practice: Innovation Lab Between Vision and Reality (Jovis). Technologies are important tools because they make a city smart by making concrete contributions to trigger dynamic processes of place-based development. Three important factors improve urban planning fruition: participation in the early stages of listening and co-design; enlightened governance and new technology. This paper (1) presents the actual possibilities and challenges of augmented reality in the field of cultural heritage, (2) describes a simulation of one case study in a neighbourhood in Cagliari (Italy), by proposing customized paths with the aim of promoting cultural tourism and (3) explains the benefits of using augmented reality in touristic and place-based processes based on the case study.

Smart paths for advanced management of cultural heritage

Internet and mobile communication has transformed the manner of conventionally interacting with cultural heritage, creating dynamic networks for all those involved. It provides opportunities to experiment with innovative mobile applications that, valorizing historical and environmental resources, complement the broader context of smart cities/regions. This paper aims to study an advanced virtual on-site fruition of cultural heritage by users–consumers, applied in the region of Sardinia, through the simulation of computer-based relational augmented reality (AR) applications. This case study, which is a unique regional attempt at promoting regional cultural heritage using AR technologies, is interesting because of its tourist offerings that today remain fragmented.

The “Non-Places” Meet the “Places:” Virtual Tours on Smartphones for the Enhancement of Cultural Heritage

Abstract Because of todays inadequate interaction between tourists, professionals, and citizens, in this paper the simulation of a new form of knowledge management is presented for more effective utilization of cultural heritage sites. The latest technologies allow interaction of previously separate domains of experience: desire, identity, tourism, memory, and marketing. They are the access keys that, starting from the territory, can take the user into other domains, evaluating the entirety of the cultural heritage. In this regard, the paper presents the simulation of a prototype able to go beyond what is currently provided online: tourist paths are offered that are available online and can be downloaded onto mobile devices (smartphones or tablet PCs), thus creating a tour of the local heritage that provides audio-video content. It allows the opportunity to encourage a deeper exploration of cultural heritage.

Benchmarking Smart Urban Mobility: A Study on Italian Cities

The sustainable development of transport systems has generated particular interest within the initiatives in the field of ‘smart cities’. This paper is part of current approaches to smart cities benchmarking and it focuses on the definition of a quantitative methodology, capable to evaluate urban mobility through a synthetic indicator of mobility. In this work, we propose a valid method for any city in the world, although its application focuses on the Italian context. This is because this paper shows a first phase of a broader research.

Focus on Citizens: Public Engagement with Online and Face-to-Face Participation—A Case Study

The main objective of this paper is to focus on how an integrated system based on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and face-to-face communication can increase participation in order to have a positive effect on quality of life, plans and decisions, and to discuss the many benefits which web-based public participation can bring to the planning process through a set of improvements to relations, quality and structure of cities in general and in this case example specifically. With the development of a transparent support system for collaborative decision-making processes, it is possible to identify a strategy for addressing gaps to reach collaborative decisions.

An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Strategic Spatial Planning: A Study of Sardinian Municipalities

Abstract A political and technical debate about the effectiveness of strategic spatial planning results is ongoing. The debate has taken this direction, rather than focusing on the methods, procedures and organization of spatial planning, because it is difficult to contextualize the development of programmed steps within the time required for their implementation. This article explores the potentialities and challenges of this debate, focusing on its evolutionary excursus in Italy and the region of Sardinia. The aim of this article is to propose a qualitative assessment methodology, capable of comparing different spatial strategic plans, in order to understand the extent to which the plans’ stated objectives were achieved, and to assess what changes the implementation of these objectives achieved in the external environment over the medium and long term.

Emerging Technologies and Cultural Tourism: Opportunities for a Cultural Urban Tourism Research Agenda

The aim of this work is to highlight how the ‘traditional’ approach to cultural tourism should be rethought as part of a broader vision, in which the latest technological devices (smartphones, tablet PCs) and new developments in the ‘smart city’ paradigm can help in the planning and programming of cultural tourism. To this end, this chapter is organized into three main sections: the first shows how cultural tourism is enhanced today because of new technologies, the second offers a brief overview of how the tourism of cultural heritage has been inserted into the domain of smart tourism and how it is being enhanced today, and the third focuses on opportunities for taking a strategic approach to cultural tourism, in order to go beyond local fragmentary promotions, allowing tourists to perceive all cultural offers for a single destination as unique. Finally, conclusions are drawn, with particular attention given to the construction of specific recommendations for the strategic planning and programming of cultural tourism.

Future research on European Union Cohesion Policy: a Master Class during the OPEN DAYS 2014

In this paper we discuss EU Cohesion Policy, its development over time and prospects for future research. Since the introduction of the EU Cohesion Policy in 1988, its focus has transformed from overcoming regional disparities by developing disadvantaged regions towards economic investment. When Cohesion Policy was subordinated to the Lisbon agenda and subsequently to the Europe 2020 strategy, competitiveness, employment and growth became its primary targets. For 2014–20, a significant share of the €351.8 billion allocated to Cohesion Policy is being ring-fenced to target particular categories of investment in jobs and growth such as research and innovation, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) competitiveness, the low carbon economy and social inclusion. In the following, we outline five fields that require rethinking and further research.

A Critical Reflection on Smart Governance in Italy: Definition and Challenges for a Sustainable Urban Regeneration

The aim of this work is to analyze the projects carried out by public institutions in the field of smartness, in order to reflect on the most effective mechanisms of governance. To this end, the paper is organized into two main sections. The first section provides a literature analysis of theoretical frameworks as they pertain to the role of political bodies, the policies, and their impacts on local communities in relation to the governance of smart cities. The second section explores the ongoing implementation of “smart city” projects in Italy, in order to understand how cities address their development perspectives from a conceptual framework to the construction of an actual urban space, faced with divergent politics, messy social systems, and different scales of urban governance. In this framework, disparities between urban governance scales and ideologies encompassing smart cities seem linked to the relational systems that local administrations can develop between neighboring cities. The final section summarizes the authors’ conclusions, giving particular attention to how networked urban systems are programmed, because they have been found to be key to strategic and transformative planning.

Smart City Governance Strategies to Better Move Towards a Smart Urbanism

This paper intends to summarize the principal reached objectives of an ongoing project on smart cities governance called GHOST financed by MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research), in order to provide an overview on how the smart governance analysis applied to smart urbanism has evolved in two particular case studies in Italy (Cagliari and Florence). Firstly, authors analyze the concept of ‘Smart City Governance’ (SCG), it is associated with a set of commonly accepted terminologies and not yet standardized even if nowadays academic attention to smart cities and their governance is growing rapidly. Secondly, this paper analyses the major aspects of smart city governance applied to case studies from: (i) the governance data acquisition approach with particular reference to tourism sector, and (ii) the adaptations of urban strategies (in general) and of these data acquisition in Florence and in Cagliari (in particular), due to the Km4city city dashboard, created and developed by the DISIT lab. The paper concludes by evaluating the emerged results of the case studies analysis, in order to find the necessary balance for urban synergies, and, consequently, to better move towards a smart urbanism.